A note about Spoilers: I’ll try, where possible, not to ruin these films for you but if you haven’t seen them and you ever think you will don’t read that film’s part. Stressful moments are often pivotal moments.

I thought I’d start with a classic in the form of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

The taxing moment in this film comes right at the end. Our friend Tuco (the ugly) is just about swinging by the neck, perilously teetering on tip-toes on a poorly constructed grave marker; meanwhile Blondie (the good) is galloping off into the distance without so much as a nod to his partner in crime. At this point we’ve become attached to Tuco and would like him, very much, not to die. We know Blondie has a penchant for shooting through hangman’s rope, but will he? He’s not a massive fan of Tuco. He’s very far away too… I’m not sure he could actually do it from there… And he’s not turning round. Is anyone else really worried about the colour of Tuco’s face?

This is England

I got given this film a couple of Christmases ago after I had already seen it. Unfortunately the DVD is still in it’s wrapper because I haven’t yet been in a self-destructive enough mood to put myself through that ordeal again. Just briefly (and simply), in case you haven’t seen it, the film is about a young boy who turns skin-head in the 80’s and gets in with the wrong crowd. It was autobiographical to a certain extent, following the lines of writer/director Shane Meadows’ childhood.

The bit I most remember this film for, apart from the end, is the horrific moment when Combo, an angry and very high skin-head, completely looses control and violently (extremely violently) attacks the teenage Milky. After Combo calms down and stops pounding his fist into Milky’s face all we can see is a lot of blood and no clear sign as to whether we just witnessed murder. It feels like a very long time before you find out Milky’s fate.

Why This is England would get to me is somewhat obvious, but another, less blantent drain on my nerves was Lars and the Real Girl

If you’ve seen this film you might be questioning my sanity; it is, after all, a slow, quiet film about the mental breakdown of a very nice man, and the healing process that is helped along by the loving people around him. However I know for a fact that I am not the only one who was grated at by this film. The key here isn’t what did happen, but what didn’t. The first time I watched this film I was waiting for something to go wrong, for the filmmakers to just push something that little bit too far and for someone to get seriously hurt. I can’t now remember what I though might “happen next” all those times, what I thought was round the corner at every narrative junction. Rest assured though fellow watchers, they kept it on the straight and narrow.

These are examples of pretty much the three main reasons you might get a little stressed sitting in your cinema seat: intentional narrative tension, violence, and an almost subconscious worry that bizarre things might happen in an otherwise lovely narrative (filmmakers beware, doing this unintentionally can kind of ruin viewing experience).

I would though, like to give honourable mention to Ghost Dog

While Ghost Dog does have some genuinely intended moments of stress (I, for example, had grown very attached to those pigeons), it also has two or three moments of accidental painful agony. If any of you have seen it you might remember those driving scenes, you know the ones: Forest Whitaker in a stolen car with his hood up, he puts some tunes on, he drives… the he drives, then he keeps on driving, oh, and then he drives some more. Never has a scene that is not driving the plot lasted so long. Ooh did I say ‘driving’ again?
That’s because he still is.

It really is a good film, and if you get the chance do watch it, do; but if it bothered you that Iron Man 1 runs for an hour before there is any Iron Man action, or that Shaun of the Dead has no real zombie proceedings for the first thirty minutes, recognise that you are not a patient viewer – that you may need your fast forward buttons for these scenes. Heck, I enjoyed those things and I still wanted to reach for the remote.

In other news, through no fault of my own (*cough*) I have mislaid my camera. When I find it, and by god I will, I will upload some pictures of my latest models.

Until then, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu, “And you And you, And you and you and you.”

Firstly a piece you’ll recognise. I finished the figure for this some time ago, but I’ve given her her own little environment, the one I always imagined her in:

If you guess all four ingredients I used to make the hills you shall have a prize (not a real prize, one of them self fulfillment jobbies).

Also, I finished the boy I was working on. He’s pretty much the same size as the girl but, as intended, a little creepier – note the smile. Here he relaxes against his own personal eternity wall, for your viewing pleasure.

I’ve been doing a little sewing recently too, all in the name of homemade Christmas presents.
For Rosie2 a doorstop/bookend:

For Mina a marshmallow, to go with her hot chocolate:

For Rosie1 a cloud, believe it or not, to hold her pens.

(They slide into the top of each dome).

So, amongst other things, that’s what I’ve been busy with. Sorry it was a short post this time, “the days are just packed”. In the next post: A yeti, an otter, good books and, you know, stuff…

Working backwards in slow succession I’ll start where I finished. I’ve had a design laying around for some time for a soft toy I wanted to make, and I finally got round to finishing it yesterday. It’s my first attempt at sewing in a considerable amount of time so frankly I’m just glad that he’s staying together. Here he is in all his glory:

Also (and more importantly) I’ve been doing what I promised myself and drawing, drawing, drawing. I’ll mention in passing these naked ladies (who, I swear, look nice when you see the actual pages D:)

and then move swiftly on to the many faces of Abi. I needed to practice drawing caricature expressions and I predominantly did this useing my own face. I worked into my favourite (sorry about image quality):

I also think they look nicer in person. As does the subject ¬¬

I’ve been working digitally too. Unfortunately, I looked at the image too long and now I’ve got myself stuck. But here, for your viewing pleasure, the bits that I think are ok:

In conjunction with doing things, I have also been watching things. The other day me and Mina went to see The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Her idea, not mine, and a very good idea it was too.

I liked the story line, it was imaginitive and classic in an ‘evil versus good and everyone has magical powers’ sort of way, but with that modern twist. Very Terry Gilliam really.

I’m pleased that Johnny Depp, Colin Farrel and Jude Law having to take over from Heath Ledger fitted into the plot so well, and that the castings worked, not intruding on the story or the character at all. In fact the only bad thing I have to say about it really was the content of the illustrious Imaginarium itself. There were some obvious inconsistencies with it that I felt, actually, made the narrative run smoother, but what did bother me was the shallowness of it. Rather than imagination it seemed only to represent superficial desires. For instance, a middle aged woman enters and sees giant high heels adrift on an azure lake. Both Mina and I couldn’t help thinking that if we’d gone in what we saw would have been appreciably better. But then, I suppose that’s the point.

Otherwise I enjoyed.

As well as cinemaing it up I also bought a DVD. Having finally got my PS2 plugged in in lay of my DVD player, now no longer functional, I sat down for 106 minutes of total viewing pleasure.

Hands up if you’ve seen Push? It didn’t do very well at cinemas (it completely passed me by) but I was recommended it by both Tom and Mina and it was really worth the watch.

In fact, in honesty, I’m here to stand on my tiny internet pedestal and shout “Buy it ! Buy it!” as loud as I can. The reason being that I want a sequel and, based on what it made at the box office, I couldn’t call that occurrence a likelihood without extremely good DVD sales.

It’s received a lot of flak from people who call it a Heroes rip off. It isn’t, so there. Firstly it was written several years ago, before Heroes filled the heads of the zeitgeist. Also the only major similarity is that there are lots of people with powers running around doing powerful shiz. It’s no more a rip-off of Heroes than Heroes was of X-men. In fact less.

That out of the way, why don’t I actually tell you WHY it’s so good (and why you should buy it).

Well it is about people with powers. It’s set in modern day China and full of modern day Americans and modern day Chinese people. The basic premise is that we live in a world were some people have powers and these people are hunted. It’s based loosely on real life situations in that it extrapolates (liberally) from testing that has really gone on in countries all round the world on people with psychic powers. In the film these people may be able to do any one of the following: Pushing (effectively mind control), Moving (telekinesis), Bleeding (emitting super high-pitched kill-you-dead sound waves), Watching (seeing the future), Sniffing (using psychometry to find people), Shifting (making one thing look like something else), Wiping (removing memories), Shadowing (hiding things or poeple), Stitching (healing people, or unhealing people ¬¬).

The hunters in the film are Division (creepy mean government officials) and captives are held and tested on in hopes of creating psychic powered wonder-soldiers. Your basic Sci-fi action film.

What makes it so good is how the characters, who are well formed and quite comic bookesque, are compelling, not angsty and unlikable, like troubled super people can often become. The powers are managed well, looking good and making sense, and the whole thing fits together very satisfyingly – plot, character interaction, setting.

Another thing to admire, and what really makes the film, is the aesthetic. The colours fit perfectly, what could seem gaudy is made intense and attractive and there wasn’t one single location that looked out of place or that didn’t impress me. Many scenes where shot on busy streets in one take and look amazing.

Other scenes are darker, I don’t think I’ve ever seen more shades of teal.

Interiors where also lovely, palatial clubs contrasting with the colourful grime or Nick’s cheap apartment.

It was cast well too, with Chris Evans (new to me) and Dakota Fanning starring in the lead roles as Nick and Cassie. I like the back and forth between these two and they both really held there own. Here is Dakota Fanning looking pink:

I still haven’t (and can’t) explained all of it’s appeal, and I can only hope you’ll trust me and give it a try. Just imagine super-powers, great, relatable characters, an excellent story and more aesthetic beauty than you can shake a stick at.

And heck, Christmas is (almost but not quite) coming up. Why not buy a few copies and share the love?

Anyway, you’re probably wondering what my point is.

Here’s a poem (in rhyming, nonsense, couplets) that I’m hoping to illustrate:

Last night I had a dream so good
It should come true but if it could.
I dreamed it all; air, land and sea,
Became exact’ what it should be.
The grass was green, the sky was blue,
But other things became more true:
The raging roads – the motorways –
Each one a great dragon became.
They swerved and kicked until they sailed
And each car became a perfect scale,
And every person, commuters all,
Upwards did begin to fall.
They skipped and jumped without a care
And soon about ‘came wisps of air.
While in the city none was sane,
As mighty birds (once aeroplanes)
Glided in the warm bright air
And many people stood to stare.
But some distracted came to be,
And odd it also seemed to me,
That every burger, from perplexéd hand,
Soon on the ground began to land,
And from each greasy seed would sprout
A wildebeest with dripping snout.
And off they’d run through concrete streets,
And followed then by many feet
(Now each one bare upon the ground)
Their owners hunting good as hound.
And truth be known, as it should be,
But one beast in every thirty-three
Was used for meat. The others free
To run until they reached the sea.

And soon the buildings took their chance,
To become what they’d been once.
Foundations shook, metal, rust, ore,
And suddenly they were no more.
Great mountains stood, and touched the sky
And in between them valleys wide.
And this is where the pop’lace stayed,
Letting mem’ries of cities fade.
Culture imprinted in the stone
Became their new illustrious home.
And those who felt the world too small
Became the rushing rivers cool,
And others thought it would be fun
To become bright rays of sun,
Many stayed, but for some a notion
Took them, as fish, into the ocean.
And animals that had been born
Took on an old and meaning form,
And we ran with them, not against,
Shared disrespect forgotten hence.
And belovéd pets began to swell
And gigantified they ran as well.
Each child clambered for a ride,
And never left the creature’s side.
And trees and swamps and algae green
Spread through the world at rates unseen,
And weather soon became our friend,
And always would be till the end.
And with new friends comes new ideas
And suddenly perspective clears,
So, with a smile we left behind
The things that hurt, too much, our mind,
And with a sort of speedy glee
Forgot the odds ‘tween you and me.

I woke this morning but to find
I had to leave that world behind.
But if you’ll help we’ll start a fix,
And using all our worldly tricks,
We’ll work on sea and land and air
And try to make what I saw there.

Sophie and her sister arrived too.

Clockwise from upper left it’s Tom, me, Bing, Mina, Rosie, Edd.

:)

For anyone who is even remotely interested in the models I make you might like to know I have recently signed up to Deviant Art (for those not in the know it’s a network site that welcomes both professional and non-professional artist, though mostly the latter).

Here’s my page:

There’s a new finished project on there; pictures of this:

I’ve started a new one now that’s similar in detail to that one. Though today I think I’m going to do something else because I’m going mad.

Also, purely through self-interest, I’d like to urge people to sign up to this facebook group
Obviously do it if you’ve seen and liked the programme. I’m aware, of course, that American CakeBomb fans won’t have seen it. I fully endorse watching it, however. It’s on the BBC iPlayer online (backdated episode, I believe). Watch it with a friend, it’s more fun that way.

I also want to say sorry for the condition of the sight. Bing has recently moved which has stunted the transition from CakeBomb Version four-trillion-eight hundred and five to Version four-trillion-eight hundred and six. Maybe one day we’ll settle down and just be happy with the design we have. Probably not though.

Peace out.

Bear Sting

It’s certainly nice to get that under my belt, even if my room is now packed with articulated lamps, cast-offs from the displaced set.

My next big project is getting underway now and it comes in the form of illustration. The book in question is a children’s book, a narrative following the life of a young bat, and I think it’s going to be mega. I’ve done a few character designs based off some quick sketches my Zeena (the author) and we’ve worked out which one we like best.

I was asked to do the illustation on the basis of a doodle Zeena saw, as it’s relevant (and I like it) here is said doodle:

Also, having seen this cat I’ve been asked to make some ornaments. It’s all go :D

Not much else has been happening recently, except I’ve been reading a four issue comic book series “Dead Irons” and really enjoying it. The art is amazing.

Por ejemplo:

yay Jason Shawn Alexander

Also, Jae Lee’s (art director for the series) covers are incredible drawings:

I got the first issue in Jeffrey’s Toy Store in San Francisco. I spent about half an hour just looking for all the issues of “Ferryman” they had and then only bought the one comic from a completely different series. I miss that store.

Is “Ferryman” good? I never did read it.

Anyway it’s my mum’s birthday today so I spent some time making her a card this morning. She had asked for a picture of me a few days ago so the card was very Abi-centric. I enjoyed editing the image and as it took me a while I consider it worth sharing (though to be honest it took quite a proportion of the preparation time just to find a workable photo XD).

I leave you with this home grown riddle:

I’m am often in view but seldom in sight,
In this way I am both to left and to right.
I have two ways out and two ways in,
but what passes through is much like the wind.

Oh yeah, you didn’t see that coming did you?

I never intended to animate with this model (good thing too as it has since been damage) but neither did I actually intend to animate with any other. To make the sting I was going to use some 2D programme… Flash or Toon Boom… But then I realised several things.

1) I don’t have Toon Boom

2) Even if I managed to acquire the programme my computer is pretty over-run and probably wouldn’t be able to manage it (this is true of both my PC and my Mac, I’m also not aware if they make Toon Boom for Mac anyway…)

3) I hate Flash.

It’s not that it’s a terrible programme with no earthly use, it’s just that I find its mechanisms so disjointed… Where it zigs I zag. We have irreconcilable differences and as such I have divorced myself from the idea of using it entirely. If you like Flash you probably (probably) like tween movement. Shame on you. Sorry, no, I didn’t mean that… Sorry, really… Anyway

Having realised these things I decided the most logical course of action (some might call it “the only one available”) was to use stop-motion. I don’t mind this one bit. The reason I didn’t go straight for this option is that this sting is uni work and stop-motion isn’t part of the Lincoln course. Also, I have never done any stop-motion that has been assessed by an actual animator. People watching my work have been Media teachers (looking at the content in relationship to the entirety of the text) or Art teachers (looking at set and character design and content in relationship to an extended project),or family members (looking at it through the loving eyes of an efficient support system). No one has ever looked in depth at the actual motion, it’s fluidity and (for lack of a better word) realism…

Anyway, I’ll have to get over my nerves about that because stop-motion is really all I’m left with.

Enough talkings, time for pitures.

So here’s what I came to talk about, the stages of creation for the full size, fully animatable (new word created, ten points!) “Bear”.

Phase one (technically three)

(I skipped the purely skeletal metal phase because there really isn’t much to see as well as a slightly less developed fleshed out phase because it was insignificant. This picture was taken after I reinforced the neck, a part of model anatomy I constantly under fortify.)

Phase 2 (4…)

The correct coloured flesh is on there ( you have no idea how long it took me to mix that. I’ve done these sorts of quantities before and it always takes loads of time… and gives you blisters…). All the inclusive detail is there too.

Extra

Here are teeth and goggle casings made out of clay. It’s non-firing, hard setting clay that I decided to use for pieces that I didn’t want to get damaged or change shape while I was animating. When dried the goggle casings were varnished and the teeth painted white with acrylic.

Phase 3

The parachute pack is made out of paper and everything else is comprised of wire an plasticine (or clay). He’s about 9 1⁄2″ long.

Well, that’s really all I had to share for now. On to making the sets (luckily simple) and then the animation (unfortunately not so simple).

Be off with yer, go play outside.

Well, in the spirit of posting more often (no long-term promises), I thought I’d give everyone an update.

The Bear:
I’m currently working on a short Sting that has to include the Lincoln University logo. It needs to be a minimum of ten seconds long, beginning and ending in bright white (though, that could be achieved easily with some boring fade-ins and wash-outs).

My idea involves The Bear (I call him that because of a deep lack of imagination when it comes to naming characters XD). If I carry on with this preliminary idea I’ll make an animatic that will explain it much better than words can so I’ll leave that for later.

What I can show you is the character design. After struggling for a (very) short time to convey my idea with nice, conventional drawing methods I got tired and bored of not being able to communicate quite what I was thinking. I don’t know about you but, personally, I find that unless I have a very, very clear image in my head of what I’m drawing (or painting) I find the design process gets pretty stunted. I either need those crystal clear images in my head or absolutely no design boundaries (as in this guy’s case). As such I turned to my old friend plasticine to guide me through till dawn.

With a basic blueprint of an idea or a quick sketch I find that plasticine can be very intuitive and, in modeling terms, it didn’t take me very long to get a basic 3D prototype of The Bear:

Here he is in all his glory:

I quite like the idea of having him stay blue and the sky be yellow but the original intention was just to make him with whatever colours where closest to hand. If he does change he’ll probably be yellow or brown… or browny yellow…

Wadda we think?

In my spare time I’ve been buying books, I got over excited in Borders yesterday and bought four. Buying books isn’t something I do very often, partially because the house is so full of ‘em that there’s always something out there to read, including my sister’s extensive collection of Stephen King (I just finished “The Long Walk” which I started on the way to San Francisco, a mega read and a new favourite of mine from the S.King collection). Mostly though I don’t buy books because it takes me forever to read them, the rate at which I read would mean that buying books regularly would be a COLOSSAL waste of money. These four should keep me going for a while…

Having said that, I have already got about a third into “Rashomon” (though the chunk of book I’ve got through is deceptive because only fractionally less than half the pages in it I skipped, wanting to get straight in to the stories and so ignoring the fifty-one pages of notes on pronunciation, acknowledgments, chronology, introduction (written by Haruki Murakami), further reading and translator’s notes.

“Rashomon” by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

What I have read I’ve really enjoyed though. I’ve got through five and a half short stories so far, almost all of the “A World In Decay” section. The most famous of all the stories is “In A Bamboo Grove”, turned into the 1950 Akira Kurosawa film “Rashomon” (which I haven’t yet seen), it documents the testament of several people about the rape of a woman and death of a man. Most famous this may be, but it is not my favourite. So far, for me, it’s got to be “The Spider Thread”, in this one a spider is dropped through a pond in Paradise, down into Hell so that a sinner can climb up it’s thread and escape. As far as a comparison to the rest of the book goes, so far this story has had the simplest and most obvious point to make. Though I do kind of like it’s straight forwardness, that particular aspect of it really makes it no better or worse than the other stories (some of which are less straight forward in order to make their point). What I do love about it is the imagery, the way Paradise and Hell are described and the mental vision of this man climbing up a spider thread for dozens of miles. Anyway, I’ll keep at it and see what else I find.

I also bought “Rant” by Chuck Palahniuk:

In case you’ve been living in a box, in a tank, in a cage, in a nuclear bunker, Chuck Palahniuk is the author of “Fight Club”. I’ve read quite a few of his books now, my favourite of which has been “Survivor” which (bearing in mind I’m a media student at heart so I would think like this) I think would make a good film if it was cast right. Having read the back of the book “Rant” seems kind of crazy. So far the most strange one of his I’ve read has been “Diary” which has elements of the paranormal. This one isn’t uncanny in the same way, but when you here that the main character’s “personal Viagra is the venom of a black widow spider” you know your in for an odd ride. I bought it because I trust old C.P to pull it off, don’t let me lose my faith in you, man.

Book number three is Mike Carey’s “Thicker Than Water”

Look at me not using the special offer. Genius.

For those of you who have been living in… well… not a comic book store, Mike Carey writes “Lucifer” and “Hellblazer” (seen the film “Constantine”?) as well as for some other stuff like “X-men”. I really like his first-person, slightly dead-pan writing style and this, the fourth of the Felix Castor series, will hopefully be as good as the rest.

Lastly, but never least, I got this:

I’ve been watching a lot of X-Files lately and, as late as I’ve come to the party, I feel I can’t be blamed. I was, after all, three when the series began.

Hovering round the comics section of Borders means you are also, unavoidably (though who would avoid such a thing I don’t know) hovering round the science fiction section (and the horror section and the crime section, how awesome is that! Oh, and the romantic section is pretty close…:| ). In such a place one often finds books from series (Dr Who, most notably, took up three or four shelves). What should I chance upon but “The X-Files, Whirlwind” by Charles Grant? There were a few other titles but this one looked the most appealing, voted by me as ‘all round most likely to succeed’ in the class of 2009.

As long as Grant wrote the characters well and the plot is sufficiently “spooky” it should be a good read.

Mulder and Scully are awesome:

Plus, who else wants the whole of CakeBomb to pose like that?

I’m going to go do something interesting and dynamic now.
Hope it’s sunny where you are :)